Identification badge



March 26, 1946; E. H. LAND IDENTIFICATION BADGE Filed Dec. 4, 1942 INVENTOR. BY jl w 4 Patented Mar. 26, 1946 IDENTIFICATION BADGE Edwin- H. Land, Cambridge, Mass., assignor to Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application December 4, 1942, Serial No. 467,860

5 Claims. (Cl. 88-65) This invention relates to an improved identification badge.

It is an object of the invention to provide a badge of the character described which can be readily and cheaply made, which is exceedingly difiicult to duplicate or counterfeit, and which immediately identifies the wearer.

Another object of the invention is to provide an identification badge comprising a light-polarizing photographic reproduction, and particularly a stereoscopic reproduction, of the owner of the badge, and in connection therewith means for enabling a guard or inspector to immediately determine the authenticity of the badge.

A further object is to provide a badge having the above advantages and comprising contrasting light-polarizing imagesfor example, a portrait of the wearer and some identifying indicia such as a numbercombined with means en abling a guard or inspector to determine immediately the authenticity thereof.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a badge of the character described bearing indicia designating the portion of the plant or building to which the wearer of the badge may have access, and other indicia indicative of the wearer's name or time clock number, and to provide such indicia in a manner permitting an inspector' or guard equipped with a suitable cooperating viewing device to determine immediately the authenticity of the badge and the wearers right, of access to the portion of the building or plant in which he may be.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises an article of manufacture comprising the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of partswhich are exemplified in the following detailed description and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing,

which represents in perspective, with parts broken away, one embodiment of the invention.

The identification badge of the present invention is particularly adapted for use in plants or buildings where rigid inspection of the personnel is important, and where employees are limited in their right of access to predetermined portions of the plant or building. Situations of this kind have frequently arisen in cbnnectiori with industries engaged in war work. It has become important to provide employees with a badge or identification card which is diflicult or impossible to counterfeit, which immediately identifies the wearer, which designates on its face the portions of the plant or grounds to which he'is entitled to have access and which bears an identifying number, such for example as a department number and/or a time clock number.

A preferred embodiment of the invention, and that form shown in the drawing, comprises essentially a photographic reproduction of the face of the badge owner, together with indicia, such for example as a color band or stripe designating that portion of the plant to which the owner is entitled to have access, and other indicia, for example department number and a time clock number, which enable an inspector or guard to readily ascertain the name of the person wearing the badge and the department to which he belongs. The photograph of the wearer of the badge is reproduced stereoscopically in lightpolarizing material. This may be accomplished by taking a left eye and a right eye picture of the badge owner and reproducing the two images, preferably in substantially superimposed relation, one image being reproduced in d1- chroic light-polarizing material having its polarizing axis substantially perpendicular to the polarizing axis of the dichroic light-polarizing material in which the other image is reproduced. The dichroic polarizing images may preferably be formed in any suitably oriented transparent linear hydrophilic polymeric plastic material, in ways known in the art. A preferred material for use in the reproduction of such a sheet is polyvinyl alcohol.

The sheet receiving the photographic images may be either a single sheet having its surface molecules substantially oriented, the molecules of one surface being oriented in a direction substantially perpendicular to the molecules of the other surface, or it may be a composite sheet, as.

shown in the drawing, formed by bonding together two sheets l6, 12 of the plastic material, each of which has been stretched or otherwise treated to substantially orient its molecules, the

two sheets being bonded together with the directions of molecular orientation substantially perpendicular. In the preferred embodiment of the invention this sheet or composite sheet has its surface molecules oriented in directions perpendicular to one another and at angles of degrees ing drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. v

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which. as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween,

What is claimed is:

1. An identification badge comprising, in combination, means providing substantially superimposed, right eye and left eye stereoscopic, lightpolarizing reproductions of a portrait of the badge owner, the transmission axes of said stereoscopic reproductions being substantially perpendicular, and means associated therewith and providing at least one light-polarizing identifying indicium having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of one of said stereoscopic reproductions, and a colored dichroic lightpolarizing area having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of the other said stereoscopic reproduction.

2. An identification badge comprising, in combination, means providing substantially superimposed, right eye and left eye stereoscopic, lightpolarizing reproductions of a portrait of the badge owner, the transmission axes of said stereoscopic reproductions being substantially perpendicular and at angles of 45 degrees to the edges of said badge, and means associated therewith and providing at least one light-polarizing identifying indicium having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of one of said stereoscopic reproductions, and a colored dichroic light-polarizing area having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of the other said stereoscopic reproduction.

3. An identification badge comprising, in combination, means providing substantially superimposed, right eye and left eye stereoscopic, lightpolarizn'ng reproductions of a portrait of the badge owner, the transmission axes of said stereoscopic reproductions being substantially perpendicular, and means associated therewith and providing at least one light-polarizing identifying indicium having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of one of said stereoscopic reproductions, and a colored dichroic lightpolarizing area having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of the other said stereoscopic reproduction, said indicia and said colored area being in substantially superimposed relation.

4. An identification badge comprising, in combination, means providing substantially superimposed, right eye and left eye stereoscopic, lightpolarizing reproductions of a portrait of the badge owner, the transmission axes of said stereoscopic reproductions being substantially perpendicular, means associated therewith and providing at least one light-polarizing identifying indicium having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of one of said stereoscopic reproductions, a colored dichroic light-polarizing area having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of the other said stereoscopic reproduction, and means providing a light-reflecting backing for said badge, said backing having a non-depolarizing surface in contact with said portrait-providing means.

. 5. An identification badge comprising, in combination, means comprising molecularly oriented transparent linear polymericplastic material having a dichroic stain incorporated therein and providing substantially superimposed, right eye and left eye stereoscopic, light-polarizing reproductions of a portrait of the badge owner, the transmission axes of said stereoscopic reproductions being substantially perpendicular, means associated therewith and providing at least one lightpolarizing identifying indicium having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of one of said stereoscopic reproductions, and a colored dichroic light-polarizing area having its transmission axis substantially parallel to the axis of the other said stereoscopic reproduction.

EDWIN H. LAND. 

